Her comments came as a Government report suggested a "real and perceived sense of unfairness" is felt by white people on estates around the country.

A lack of frank debate on the subject had allowed false rumours spread by far-right groups to be taken as truthful, the report found.

It discovered that people in the most deprived areas were more likely to be hostile to minorities, yet few white people interviewed had regular contact with people of other ethnicities.

The report, which was based on interviews in Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Thetford, Runcorn and Widnes, found that the concept of integration was not understood. Respondents believed it simply meant immigrants were to become "like us", the authors said.

Ms Blears said: "Changes in communities can generate unease and uncertainty. These changes need to be explained and questions need to be answered or the myths that currently surround the treatment of ethnic minorities 'jumping the queue' will become increasingly hard to shift.

"People who care about their communities and have lived there for generations have every right to ask questions about what is happening in their estate, street, neighbourhood.

"We cannot allow people to exploit situations but where there are legitimate concerns or questions they should be able to express them without fear of being branded a racist when all they really want are answers or information.

"The job of politicians and leaders is to listen and respond, to have the very debates that people in these estates are having or we risk losing touch with them altogether."

Ministers from the Department for Communities and Local Government are to hold seminars with other departments, academics and councils dealing with issues around immigration. They will seek to "bridge the gap" between authorities and white working class communities.

The Conservatives said the report’s findings were a reflection of failed Labour policies. Baroness Warsi, the shadow community cohesion spokesman, said: “What an indictment of New Labour that they have to have an investigation to show that over the last 10 years they have completely lost touch with their so-called roots.

“The danger for the rest of us is that this has now created a ticking time bomb of racial and class prejudice. Amongst other things this has also demonstrated the dangers of Labour’s past use of indentity politics for electoral purposes.

“This should be a call to focus on the real core problems of worklessness, debt, welfare dependency, family breakdown and drug and alcohol abuse.”